King Leopold's Ghost

Man, this book is horrifying. I can't believe this isn't talked about more.

The scope and goal of this book and just the sheer amount I learned would ordinarily make it a 5 star read. While I'm very glad I read it though, the lack of available material really makes itself known.

The middle of this book is a hardcore snooze, and I feel like the middle third could have been summarized in like 10 pages. It was basically an entire biography of a random person who went to the Congo, did or saw horrible things, and then left, over and over. I understand giving some historical context to the people who make up this story (I do think it's necessary), but 10 pages of backstory for every person whose contribution to the narrative usually amounts to “and then they saw bad things, and they were horrified, and then they left and thought about the bad things they saw” is just not an interesting or economical usage of pages.

But the first and last third are really good and very informative. This atrocity needs to be more well known, and I hope we continue to discover more information about it and talk about it in a public light.